Differentiated Evaluation of Extract-Specific Evidence on Cimicifuga racemosa's Efficacy and Safety for Climacteric Complaints

Table 1

Inclusion, exclusion, and stratification criteria for the identification of the literature for the evaluation of the efficacy and safety of Cimicifuga racemosa.

	Efficacy	General safety	Safety in estrogen-sensitive organs	Liver safety
Inclusion criteria
(1) Medical application of Black Cohosh	+	+	+	+
(2) 3-month treatment period at a minimum	+
(3) Full publication of clinical studies	+	+	+	+
(4) Efficacy in natural climacteric complaints (neurovegetative, psychic)	+
(5) Occurrence and frequency of adverse events		+	+	+
(6) Influence on hormone parameters, breast, and uterus			+
(7) Influence on liver function parameters				+
Exclusion criteria
(1) Preparations containing more than two ingredients	+	+	+	+
(2) Medication-induced complaints (e.g., tamoxifen)	+
(3) Use outside the registered indication (bone metabolism, anxiety disorder, and cognition)	+	+	+	+
(4) Prevention, including tertiary prevention of sequelae	+
(5) Publications in languages other than English/German	+	+	+	+
Stratification criteria
(1) Sorting by type of extract	+	+	+	+
(2) Differentiation between registered medicinal products versus other products	+	+	+	+